Dr Benjamin Linus
by AceOfSlaps
Summary: When Joan moves to LA, she meets a teacher who proves to change her life.  Ben/OC, set in the flash-sideways world.  AU because of some non-canon details.
1. Chapter 1

**Dr. Benjamin Linus**

*_Beep Beep Beep_* The warning bell rang, just as I found my first class. Latin. I, unlike most of my peers, enjoyed the Latin language. From the looks on the faces of my new classmates in Mr. Burke's class, no one at this school liked it either. "Excuse me, Mr. Burke?" I asked.

"Yes," he replied as he turned to face me.

"I'm Joan Schwenk, your new student. Where would you like me to sit?"

"Why don't you pick a seat back there," he gestured to a patch of empty seats near the back of the room.

My new classmates stared at me as I walked among their rows to get to the back. I chose a seat as close to the front as I could get, but that was still only the second-to-last row. In my first day of Latin, I learned that I was a couple units ahead of this class, so Latin would be a breeze for now, I thought. Now, my next class; European History – 306 – Linus, my schedule read.

It took me nearly the entire break to find out which building the room was located in, but I ran into the room just as the bell rang. Luckily for me, the teacher was fairly engrossed in writing something on the board. I approached him. "Mr. Linus?" He turned and smiled.

"What can I do for you?" he said in a genuine, happy voice, smiling. I couldn't help but smile back, almost blushing.

"I'm Joan Schwenk, your new student. Where should I sit?"

"Well, I'm afraid I only had one space to put you," he pointed to a desk that looked old and out of place next to the small, new desks that was in the back of the room.

I nodded and smiled, but the look of disappointment in having such poor spot must have been apparent, because he caught my shoulder as I turned to sit down at my seat and whispered in my ear. "We'll have a new seating chart in a few weeks, I'll get you a good spot," he winked and smiled. "Wait here for a moment," he added.

He finished up writing on the board then turned around and grasped my shoulder. "Class, this is Joan, she's new here, please be nice to her, don't shun her, etc." he said, joking, but only received a reaction from one girl in the front of the room. I walked to my seat and tried to get a feel for how the class was run. I enjoyed it, and noticed that the only one who readily participated was the girl who smiled at his joke earlier.

When the bell rang, I gathered my notebooks quickly so I could avoid being late to my next class. I read my schedule as I walked out of the room, but this proved to be a bad decision because I found myself tripping over someone's backpack. It was the girl who smiled earlier; I recognized her voice as she exclaimed, "Oh my god! I'm so sorry! Let me help you."

I looked up at her as I regained my footing. She was beautiful, had the most gorgeous dark-ish golden skin, and the sweetest apologetic smile. Suddenly I remembered that it was my turn to speak to her. "It's okay, after all, it was an accident," I said.

"I guess, but I'm so sorry," she replied. Then she grabbed my schedule and started to hand it to me. "Latin, cool. I take Latin too."

"Really? You think it's cool? I thought it was the only one who liked it. Does anyone else?"

She shook her head, "No, I think we're the only ones. Dr. Linus enjoys it too, though."

"Really?" I asked, referring to his speaking Latin. Then I added, "Dr. Linus, I called him Mr. Linus."

"Oh, he doesn't mind too much. He's a pretty cool teacher. My name is Alex, by the way, nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, too, my name is Joan."

"Yeah, I kind of remembered from the beginning of class."

"Yeah. That's right. I almost forgot."

Alex and I were like minded, especially in that we both thought Dr. Linus was cool. I soon came to realize that when it came to history, Alex and Dr. Linus almost never disagreed. They seemed to share a strange bond, and no matter how many times I raised my hand, no matter how good I did on a test, no matter what clever insight I gave during a discussion, I couldn't seem to discover what their little "club" was all about. So, in a truly sexist manner, I almost grew jealous of Alex. She was beautiful, a tad smarter than me, and a year older than me. It was horrible, but I found myself trying to better her, and almost compete with her for the attention of Dr. Linus. One day, at conferences, I planned to make an impression on him, a good one anyway.

Normally, a junior probably wouldn't go to parent-teacher conferences unless they were suffering from bad grades. My grades were all fine, but I figured that since it was my first year here, I should make sure all my teachers meet my mom. I'm usually the person who makes those types of decisions in my household. My dad died a year ago, and my mom started drinking to cope. It was pretty bad for a while after she left her job, but I guess she saw how it was affecting me. So she tried to clean herself up, and moved us away from our small, Montana home to an even smaller home outside of L.A. She still drinks, but she rarely gets black out drunk or go out to get wasted. She's usually subtle when it comes to drinking, now. It's not good still, but it's better than me going to bed hungry and alone every night, while she was black out drunk at the local bar where everyone knew about our situation.

When I got home, though, the day before conferences, she was fairly sober and agreed to meet me afterschool just off campus the next day. Eighteen hours later, I'm in front of the school scanning the adjacent parking lot for my mom. To my horror, I saw her stumble out of our station wagon, drunk. I ran over to her. "Mom let's go home," I said.

Before she had a chance to yell that she was fine, I turned and heard the voice of my biology teacher. "Joan! You're here for conferences, aren't you?"

I froze. "Yes we are!" my mom answered. Somehow hearing my mom slurring her words in front of my teacher and my school jerked me out of my shock.

"We'll meet you inside, Mr. Artz!" he waved and continued into the school. I then turned to my mom. "Okay, we're going to go inside, I'll introduce you to my teachers, and then we'll leave," her eyes were wandering, "Mom. Do you understand me?"

She looked at me as if I was crazy. "Of course I do."


	2. Chapter 2

**Dr. Benjamin Linus Chapter Two**

I looked at her, knowing that she wasn't fit at all to talk to my teachers. But I was so crazy about Dr. Linus, I simply couldn't resist. I walked into the room that the conferences were held in, and saw that Dr. Linus was available. I took a moment to brace myself, and then I walked to Dr. Linus' desk, pulling my mom with me. He rose to greet us.

"Joan, how wonderful it is to see you here," he said, smiling. Then he added inquisitively, "Who is this?"

"This is my mother, Isabelle; Mom, this is Dr. Linus," I said.

"Ben," Dr. Linus said, shaking my mother's hand.

"How wonderful…" my mother slurred, seeming to mentally wander off mid-sentence. We sat down awkwardly, and Dr. Linus began the conference.

"Well, Joan is a very good student, I have her grades here," he trailed off when he saw that my mom still wasn't paying attention.

"Mom," I said, rubbing her back with one hand and gesturing to Dr. Linus with the other. This shook her awake and brought her attention to the present.

"Sorry," she said.

"As I was saying," Ben continued with a concerned look on his face, "Joan is one of my best students, she's attentive, she contributes to class discussions, and her grades are an excellent reflection of that. She's wonderful, you're very lucky to have her. Do you have any questions?"

"Uh, no. That's very nice of you to say those things about Joan. Thank you," she replied.

Ben looked between my mom and me with fretful blue eyes. "Well, I guess that's it then," he rose and shook my mother's hand. Then he turned his glance to me, giving me a meaningful gaze and squeezing my hand while he shook it. I kept eye contact with him, and walked away slowly, guiding my mom to the school's front door.

In a twisted way, I had accomplished my goal. I knew I had made an impression on Dr. Linus, and I hoped he would see me in a new, more mature light.


	3. Chapter 3

We had history club the next night. Alex explained that she had to leave early to go to a friend's play with her mom. Ms. Roussau picked Alex up early, and I didn't want to risk an unpleasant conversation with Dr. Linus so I started packing up as well.

"Joan, may I have a word with you?" Dr. Linus asked. I nodded, not looking up from my backpack. "I've been thinking about our conference yesterday, and your mother in particular -"

I braced myself. I knew what was coming. I didn't want to hear it from it.

"I know," I interrupted. "I know she has a drinking problem."

After a few moments of awkward, tense silence, Dr. Linus continued. "I suspected." He now leaned closer to me, reaching across the desk. "I know how hard it must be for you, Joan." He paused. "Is there anything you want to share with me?" I knew what he was suggesting. And it wasn't true.

"My mom doesn't hit me," I snapped.

"Joan," Dr. Linus said, not really buying my previous statement. "You have nothing to hide. There are people who want you to be okay, people who care about you."

"I'm not a victim."

He still looked like he didn't believe me, and I was angry. "I should start walking home," I said, pulling my backpack strap over my shoulder and rising out of my chair.

"It'll be getting dark soon." He had a point. "Why don't I give you a ride home?" he said.

I nodded reluctantly.

"Alright. Let me get my things, and then we'll leave." Soon he was showing me to his car. I didn't really want to talk to him, and Dr. Linus was trying to conceal his emotions. Once we were buckled in, he looked at me and said, "You're going to have to tell me where your house is so I can take you there." I told him without making eye contact. He drove in silence for a while when my stomach growled loudly. I folded my arms, embarrassed, and Dr. Linus laughed quietly. "Hungry?" he asked.

"I guess," I answered. Actually I was ravenous, because I hadn't had lunch and had barely any breakfast. I was also worried, because there wasn't any food at my house.

"I didn't eat my sandwich for lunch today; if you want it, you can have it."

"Yes please," I said, looking around me for the lunch.

"It's in a lunchbox in the back." I reached into the backseat and found the bag. Almost immediately I began eating it.

"I take it you like egg salad sandwiches?" He asked, smiling at the large bites I was taking.

"Actually," I said, "I hate egg salad sandwiches."

Dr. Linus let my words hit the wall in between us. "Do you go hungry often, Joan?" he asked, gently.

I put the sandwich down. "You could say that," I replied. "But that's honestly the worst part." I was rushing my words now, "My mom tries so hard to take care of me and to be a good mom -" I started crying.

Dr. Linus pulled to a stop across the street from my house. "Hey, it's okay. I'm sorry I didn't believe you earlier, but I believe you now." He reached his arm across my shoulders and rubbed my arm gently. He handed me some tissues from his bag. "You're going to be okay. There are people in your life who can look after you and your family if you need it." I managed to stop crying and I blew my nose. Dr. Linus removed his arm and a few seconds later pressed a $50 bill into the palm of my hand.

"I can't take this, you don't have to -"

"You're taking it. Use it for whatever you need. Let me know if you need help."

"Thank you so much, Dr. Linus," I said. "This is all too much."

"Don't mention it," he replied, jotting something down on a piece of paper. "Here's my home and cell phone number. I want you to call me if you ever have any trouble at all. And don't hesitate to talk to me at school." He handed me the paper and pointing to it; said, "This is a list of the time and meeting places for alcoholics anonymous. Those meetings can be very beneficial. And this," now pointing to another spot on the page "is a support group for family and friends of alcoholics. I'd like you to think about going to at least one of those meetings. You'll feel better if you talk about it."

"Thank you. This is really amazing of you."

"You're welcome. Take care, ok?" I nodded as I got out of the car, with his lunch in my hands.

"And Joan," he said as I crossed the empty street. I turned and walked back to him. "My lunch is always available to you."

We shared smiles and I heard him drive away when I opened my door. I went to bed that night feeling conflicted. My conversation with Dr. Linus ended up making me feel better, but I hadn't seen my mom since the night before.

A/N

I'm very sorry to people who've enjoyed thist story; but this is probably the last I'll write of it. I stumbled across my old journal where I had written the beginning of this story, and found that I hadn't published this last part of it yet. So I typed it up; re-wrote some parts of it; and I'm publishing this last chapter for anyone who wants to read it.


End file.
